Jaleel White rose to fame as the hilarious Steve Urkel in Family Matters but now he’s 38-years-old and a whole lot of handsome!
Steve Urkel is one of the world’s most iconic characters and for Jaleel White it defined the rest of his career.
Despite his role being paramount in the success of Family Matters, Steve Urkel was originally intended as a guest role for one episode when he was just 12 years-old.
“The show had been on for 12 episodes; I came on for episode 13,” Jaleel revealed to Vanity Fair.
He added: “It wasn’t doing well in the ratings. I got booked on the show and I remember thinking, ‘Great, I can have fun for the week.’”
However the success of the long-running sitcom did take its toll on the actor, “I wasn’t changing my hair; I was staying out of the gym, to be honest, I was retarding my own growth as a man in order to maintain the authenticity to what I thought that character should be.'”
Nowadays Jaleel is the proud dad to a daughter and still works as an actor with roles on Grown Ups, NCIS, Hawaii Five-O.
In 2012 he impressed on the US version of Dancing with the Stars alongside Aussie Kym Johnson.
So, how does he feel 17 years after the show that propelled him into fame finished? “I always tell people I basically have the same career as William Shatner [of Star Trek fame], there was a long period of his life where he was Captain Kirk to anyone, and then he became Denny Crane [from Boston Legal], and it’s just a generational thing,” the good-humoured star confessed during a HuffPost Live session last year.
Checkout Jaleel White’s transformation from Steve Urkel to a certified hunk
Woah! Jaleel White was just 12-years-old when he was cast as Steve Urkel, now he’s 38 and seriously handsome.
“I was getting network notes on the bulge of my sack! I wore my pants so freaking tight and it was like, after a while, we got a problem there. So, literally, the last season we loosened up his pants.” Jaleel revealed to Vanity Fair about his famous nerd-inspired attire.
He hasn’t ruled out a revival of his famous character either: “I’ll always say never say never; I’m a pretty creative person. I can’t envision how I could do it in a way that would be irreverent and fun for both me and the viewing audience.”
Jaleel turned Steve Urkel into a serious money maker, “I’m the highest-paid black kid in the history of television, just so you understand that. I was trying to prolong the checks,” he told Vanity Fair.
Nowadays Jaleel is the proud dad to daughter Samaya, who was born in 2009, and still works as an actor with roles on Grown Ups, NCIS, Hawaii Five-O.
In 2012, the actor also appeared on the US version of Dancing with the Stars alongside Aussie Kym Johnson.
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